Royal Treatment

By Cecilia Tan

Book Review by Kathleen Bradean

When I started writing erotica, I read everything I could find. Cecilia Tan’s The Velderet
was an astonishing find. Almost every call for erotica submissions specifically stated that science fiction would not be accepted, and yet, here was an intelligent erotic novel set in an alternate universe. This combination of my favorite genres made me a fan.

The Royal Treatment is a novella. That’s my only complaint. There’s something sad about flipping the last page of a book (metaphorically, as this is an e-book) and finding that there’s no more to read when you aren’t ready to leave that world yet.

In Arshan’s universe, domination and submission is a way of life. Even their gods are Master and slave. His father keeps him offworld as much as possible, but also exposes him to training in the ways of their people. This sexual training comes in useful when his father can’t protect him from a high stakes political game any longer.

Taken by his father’s enemy to the Summer Palace, Arshan meets the other nobles who are candidates to become the future Queen’s consort slave. From the moment he meets them, it’s a mental and physical game of sexual dominance. Arshan is at the mercy of the other candidates for a week. He must play a submissive role, but his heart’s not in it as he’s a dominant. Every candidate has a different technique to try to break his self-control. There’s more at stake than his position in the pecking order, and he finds allies in unlikely places.

It’s difficult to build a believable alternate universe in a novella, but the glimpses in Royal Treatment are enough to carry the story. The characters are similarly drawn fully enough, but will leave you wanting to know more about them. Arshan may be in every sex scene, but each partner brings out a different aspect of his personality. It’s a taste that will leave you wanting more.